When managing a complex project, it is helpful to divide the project into a number of tasks that must be performed to completion to achieve the purpose of the project. Although the scope and importance of an individual task to the overall project may vary, each task of the project can be defined in a manner that describes the task, allows assignment of the task to a party or parties responsible for the completion of the task, provides an estimated start time and an estimated finish time for the task, and/or provides an estimate effort for the task. A description of tasks and projects comprised of tasks is provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/844,219, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING INHERENT PROJECT UNCERTAINTY,” and filed Aug. 23, 2007, and Ser. No. 11/844,228, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING INHERENT PROJECT UNCERTAINTY,” and filed Aug. 23, 2007, each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Defining a task with a specific start and finish or an estimated amount of effort facilitates the management of a project. Discrete tasks can be grouped, ordered, prioritized, and otherwise organized to allow a user (such as a project manager) to plan an overall project timeline and monitor task completion progress. As can be appreciated, complex or numerous tasks or projects can become difficult to manage without assistance. To assist with the management of multiple projects, project management software can be used to monitor and manage tasks of multiple projects simultaneously.
An example of an exemplary project management interface 10 that may be generated by project management software for managing multiple projects is illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the project management interface 10 includes three projects 20 that are labeled “Project A,” “Project B,” and “Project C.” The three projects are listed in a priority order in column 30, with projects depicted towards the top of the interface taking precedence over projects depicted towards the bottom of the interface. Each project is comprised of one or more tasks 35 that can represent an actual task, job, or assignment by zero or more users. Tasks 35 are similarly listed in priority order, with tasks that are presented higher on the interface taking priority over tasks that are presented lower on the interface. For example, Project A comprises five tasks 35 generically labeled Task 1 to Task 5, with each task having a higher priority than the task beneath it, i.e., Task 1 has a higher priority than Tasks 2-5, Task 2 has a lower priority than Task 1 and a higher priority than Tasks 3-5, etc. Since Project C is listed lower than Project A in the interface 10, Project C has a lower priority than Project A. Project C comprises nine tasks 35, with like tasks grouped into folders 40 for purposes of organizing the tasks. Each folder 40 may be labeled to describe the nature of the tasks that are contained within the folder (e.g., Design, Build, Test). As depicted in FIG. 1, Task 1 of Project A is at the highest priority level and Task 6 of Project B is at the lowest priority level.
The project management interface 10 also has a timeline 45 that is used to graphically depict a work period that is associated with each task, group of tasks, or project. The work period associated with a task is depicted by a bar 50. Each bar represents a period of time starting at the beginning of the task and ending with the completion of the task. Time may be measured in hours, days, weeks, or any other increment of time that is suitable for tracking progress on the corresponding task. Although the bars 50 are depicted as uniform in FIG. 1, it will be appreciated that the bars may be of different lengths. Project A is shown to have five tasks, each task having a bar 50 representing the work period for that task. As shown, each task of Project A is started and finished in sequence, beginning with Task 1 and ending with the completion of Task 5. In addition to bars 50 associated with each task 35, a set of bars 55 is presented for each project which represents the summed work period associated with all tasks for that project. For example, Project A has a set of five bars 55 which represent the aggregate work period associated with Tasks 1-5. Similarly, Project C is represented by nine bars 55 for the corresponding nine tasks. The three folders 40 contained in Project C are also represented by groups of three bars 60 that represent the grouped tasks associated with each folder. As can be appreciated, except for Project A and Task 1 of Project A, each project or task is dependent on the completion of the task immediately preceding it and is thus intended not to start until the preceding task is completed. The resulting project structure is therefore an idealized one, in that rarely are projects completed by the sequential execution of a series of tasks. All too often, projects are often run in parallel, requiring greater flexibility to manage multiple projects than is available via the project management interface 10 of FIG. 1.